Red Wings, Datsyuk Agree On A New Contract.

Various sources today report the Detroit Red Wings have reached agreement on a new three-year contract extension with forward Pavel Datsyuk.

Pavel Datsyuk agrees to 3 year extension with Red Wings.

SPECTOR’S NOTE: Financial terms haven’t been disclosed but according to MLive.com’s Ansar Khan, Datsyuk’s agent claims the new deal is worth $23 million ($10 million in 2014-15, $7.5 million in 2015-16, and $5.5 million in 2016-17). The average annual cap hit would be $7.6 million per season, and kicks in for the 2014-15 season, as he still has one season remaining on his current contract.

Some of you may wonder about “front-loading”, but the new CBA does allow for salary variance over the life of a contract, only it prevents the kind of absurdly long, heavily front-loaded deals of the past. I believe the final year of the contract must be worth just over half of the first year of the contract.

As Datsyuk turns 35 in July, he will fall under the “over-35” rule when his new contract goes into effect, but given it’s only a three-year deal, and his ongoing high level of performance, I don’t believe there’s any concerns over his retiring before the contract expires.

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